- warlords - hundreds of warlords, small and large, dominated the country
- Chiang was able to attract some, but many lay outside his control
- Japan - Japanese tried to block Chiang’s attempts to unify
- communists
- initially communistss joined KMT
- but Chiang and most of KMT were conservative
- communists put on the run
- nationalists control stretches to the wall - but Manchuria under a puppet ruler beholden to Japan
- How did the Nationalist govt change under Chiang Kai Shek? Why?
- was a general
- expanded KMT power through China by military victory - spread to central and north parts of the country
- became a military plutocracy - rule by the wealthy - extended power to landowners
- purge communists
- What would be the appeal of Chiang’s govt to the people?
- How did Chiang decide to deal with the Communists? Why?
- decided to purge communists - massacre in Shanghai
- did not want to rule the peasantry
- undertook 5 extermination campaigns to eradicate the communists
- What was the Communist appeal to the people?
- believed revolution could and should be carried out by peasantry, not urban proletariat
- preached to peasantry oppressed by absentee landlords, harried by bandits and plundered by military leaders, and reduced to near starvation
- people were in revolutionary mood
- paid for food during Long March - gave decent treatment to peasants
- Who was Mao? What was the Long March? Why was it necessary?
- Mao was leader of the communists
- the Nationalists had attempted to eradicate the communists. In a series of extermination campaigns
- Communists were pursued by Nationalist forces and encircled in the fifth extermination campaign - 1934.
- 30 000 of 90 000 made the march from South China to Shenshi province - remote and barren
- the communists passed by cities and stayed in the countryside
- they paid for their food and supplies and acted with restraint
- Communists finally stopped in Yan’an - protected by barren plateaus and high mountains
- What strategies did Mao adopt in order to
- continue the communist party?
- did not attempt to fight Nationalists in a direct battle
- found a safe haven
- decide to liberate the peasants through protracted guerrilla war in the rural areas
- strengthen the party?
- decent treatment of peasants
Stage 3 - Japanese occupation 1937-1945
- When and why did the Japanese take over Manchuria?
- 1931 - wanted raw resources - saw Nationalists as a threat to their rule
- What was the reaction of the Nationalists? The communists?
- Nationalists - Chiang refused to send his armies north of the great wall because he was encircling Mao’s forces in the interior
- asked the League of Nations to take care of it
- Communists - were in Northern rural strongholds -especially Kiangsi - they declared war on Japan - but did not enter into war with them- this made them popular with the people, especially of Manchuria
- How did the Japanese expand into China after 1937?
- took over coastal Chinese cities
- took capital of Beijing and besieged Shanghai
- How did the Japanese occupation of China affect the fortunes of the KMT?
- War united the country as nothing had before
- Nationalists lost the cream of their army
- Communists improved fortunes though not completely
- Adopted guerrilla warfare strategy
-
Created 4th army operating in Shanghai area
- Eventually clashed with nationalist forces
Problems facing the Nationalist govt
- inflation
- lack of money
- displaced population
- low morale – public support constantly decreasing
- hoarding and smuggling
- corruption had spread through the entire organization
- Americans by 1943 are concentrating on Germany
8. nationalist soldiers had abused peasants in their occupation - ex. enforced tax collection in a time of famine
- peasants retaliated by killing, robbing, and disarming troops retreating
9. Of 1.67 million drafted, 44% deserted or died on the way to join their units
Communists
- Grew rapidly in 43-44
- Claimed to have army of 1 000 000 and control of population of 90 million
- Spread out widely in N and E China
- instituted land reform programs wherever they were strong
- KMT followed by Japanese had left rural communities institutionally weak, their eco lives fragile, their destinies in the hands of new types of rural power brokers or "local bullies"
- violence was an integral part of this process, as old scores were settled with village thugs and personal enemies as well as with landlords
- personnel expanding the rev were trained by veteran cadres in special institutes in the city, and all modern means of communication - newspapers, films, magazines, radio spread the message of communism to the citizens
- 1944 met with Nationalists for peace negotiations – could not be worked out
Civil War
- In the context of a final loss of confidence in the economy and the policies of the KMT, the CCP forged their conclusive military victory
- In 1947 the comm. controlled most of the northern countryside
- Peasant guerrillas constantly disrupted Chiang's supply lines, making relief slow and dangerous
- KMT troops became surrounded by communists and could only be supplied by air
- Chiang consistently refused to remove troops from battle to consolidate a stronger position
- When troops retreated they left vast quantities of vehicles, arms, and ammunition
- To take the country, the CCP engaged in normal warfare of massive troops
- victories went back and forth, but CCP won propaganda victories by maintaining strict discipline and refusing to harm the civilian population
- in cities army maintained strict discipline - did not touch ordinary businesses and did not rdb urban property
- factories were patrolled to prevent looting
- in the cities the CCP developed eco measures to stop inflation against key goods - food and fuel
- CCP did not have air power but became adept at using artillery
- Nationalists were hampered by contradictory and impractical orders by Chiang and the massive desertion of their troops
8. riots broke out in cities where fighting occurred
9. As Chiang retreated he did not fall back to places of KMT support
b. economic
feeble agrarian empire
- each region largely self-sufficient in food and fibre and great deal of trade between regions
- rice the staple crop of 6/9 regions
- products of China consisted of almost entirely agricultural commodities and handcrafted mfg
- wheat, millet, maize, potatoes, peanuts, tobacco, tea, opium, silk, cotton, processed foods, paper, furniture, rugs, salt, and coal.
- almost entirely lacking in science and industrial technology
- human or animal labour
- markets were held every few days in larger rural villages - these were generally connected by water or road to larger towns
- about 94 % of all Chinese lived in rural, peasant villages (overall population 4 000 000)
- villages typically clusters of mud and brick houses
- miserable standard of living - hunger or famine not uncommon
- most farm families owned 1-2 acres of land
- classes:
- landless peasants - eked out living through day labour, tenant farming, handicrafts, or service occupations
- families who owned enough land to sustain themselves through agriculture
- “rich” - owned more land than could personally cultivate and able to rent
- top - wealthy landlord families who avoided all manual labour and lived on rents
- poor (60%) owned 18% land, middle (30%) owned 33% land, rich (10%) owned 49%
- NOT a great gulf between them!
- economy 1911-1937
- remains a pre-industrial society
- agriculturally remains same
- in cities, industrial production increased at average rate of 14% 1912-1920
- just under 1.5 million Chinese workers involved in large and medium-scale production - less than 1% of the population - this was heavily concentrated in a few cities
- 250/260 million involved in agriculture
- 12-14 million involved in mining, utilities, construction and handicrafts
- major trunk lines built in North China
- telegraph lines connected major cities
- 1920-1936
- industrial growth slowed down
- agriculture experienced a prolonged crisis
- world depression partly to blame
- military - foreign powers have their way - leads to re-thinking of Chinese traditions
- social
- Japanese and Western invasion creates push to modernize and industrialize Ch.
- Western science, economics, and philosophy become more popular
- Chinese simultaneously admire and detest foreigners
- social
- in every way the family system shaped and organized life in China
- each person was exhorted to follow the virtue of “filial piety” or deference toward parents and elders - marriage, inheritance of skills and land, security in old age
- highly sexist
- urban
- only small proportion of the country’s population
- great influence
- all key govt locations
- Shanghai was the major city
Establishment of the state:
A. situation facing Mao
- 12 years of war and civil war
- hyperinflation
- stagnation in agriculture and industry
- crippled transportation system
- flight of capital and managerial talent
- massive unemployment
- refugees and demobilized soldiers
- hunger and malnutrition
- opium addiction, prostitution
- Help
- How could China obtain required technical and financial aid to achieve rapid growth
- Soviets seemed obvious ally but
- Stalin’s unity policy almost disastrous for CCP
- Soviets had plundered factories in Manchuria following the war
- Seemed to favour weak and divided China as a neighbour
- Mao later said that if the Chinese had followed Stalin’s plan there would never have been a revolution
Ideology:
Leadership/Importance of leadership:
- Under Mao’s leadership China became united nation for first time since1911
- Rid country of imperialists and set it towards modernization
- Able to motivate millions of peasants in mass movements
- Unmatched as populist leader, but unable to create popular mass govt
Organization/Importance of organization
Success solving problems:
a. political
1952
- Creates 6 military regions and centralized authority
- Hundreds of thousands of villages and towns quickly fell into line – their chief concern was the harvest
- Soviet model introduced
- Party congress introduced but met infrequently
- Congress elected a central committee containing 100-300 members
- Until 54 China was under mil control
- Execution of counter-revolutionaries by army and secret police – over 2 million counter-revs were executed at this time – millions more were sent to concentration camps by people’s courts
- Gaining control was quite easy
- Many public officials and bureaucrats had already fled
- Industrialization had profound effect on communist hierarchy
- Some party leaders grew comfortable in urban centers and abandoned their rural roots
- Party began to split b/w right wing conservatives (who favoured industrial and eco growth) and left wing radicals who kept ties to egalitarianism of farm
- Question of which path to take to socialist utopia – urban or rural
- Should power be decentralized to the village or centralized in the CP
- Mao was always worried about the overbureaucratization of the CP and its forgetfulness of its legal beginnings
- to cement the revolution in rural areas, it was essential to institute some variety of land reform and to maintain the wide basis of peasant support
- about 40% of the cultivated land was seized from landlords - about 60% benefited in some way
- the reforms effectively wrecked the power base of the old landlord elite
- CCP leaders encouraged violent confrontations between landlords and their tenants
- around 1 in 6 landlord families had a member killed
in cities, by contrast - first task were to prevent violent social confrontations, and to encourage industries to reopen and workers to stay at their jobs
- govt promoted formation of labour union
- kept most city officials on their jobs
Structure of new govt
- establishment of an effective national govt for China was Mao's paramount success
- framework nominally divided power among three central components
- the communist party
- all aspects of ideology
- coordinate work of govt and army
- in charge of party organization
-Central committee, 44 members, appt regional branches of the party
-5 members in politburo incl Mao and Zhou Enlai
- the formal govt structure
-at apex was Central People's Govt Council - Mao was chairman - 56 members incl most prominent communists from the early days
-directly under Mao were 6 vice-chairmen
-Zhou Enlai was premier
-under Zhou were 24 new ministries: agriculture etc..
- the army
- the formal govt structure overlapped and interconnected constantly with the CCP organization
- ccp members were integrated throughout all the govt organs, the mass organization, the courts of justice, the educational system, and the army
- economic
Soviet model introduced
- work was to be centered on the planned, systematic rehabilitation and development of heavy industry defined as mining and the prodn of steel, iron, electrical power, machinery, and chemicals
- in the first months the main focus had to be on practical tasks of restrining inflation, building up agr prodn, restoring the dismantled heavy industries, and maintaining law and order
- to cement the rev in rural areas, it was essential to institute some variety of land reform and to maintain the wide basis of peasant support
- about 40% of the cultivated land was seized from landlords and rdb - about 60% benefited in some way
- the reforms effectively wrecked the power base of the old landlord elite
- CCP leaders encouraged vilent confrontations between landlords and their tenants
- around 1 in 6 landlord families had a member killed
- key figures Zhou Enlai and Chen Yun
- reduced inflation – balanced budgets, currency reform, and price controls
- took control of major industries and banks – nationalization
- capitalists and managers employed to get industry moving
- railroads and roads restored and expanded
- foreign community expelled and property confiscated
- assault launched on criminal gangs
1952
- Agriculture
- Land rdb in agriculture – eliminate the elite class – overall aim was to abolish private ownershiip and rdb land on an equitable and small plot basis - paves way for collectivization – at this stage mergers were to be gradual and voluntary – landowners were given equal shares and after proper penance and re-education had the stigma of “owner’ removed from their records
- Cadres were sent to villages to adm land reform through public humiliation of landowners
- Rdb did not solve production problems or poverty – grain prodn did increase at 13%/yr
- Labour intensive irrigation and transportation projects paved way for collectivizaiton
- Overall the lot of the peasant improved
- Agricultural surplus was to pay for industrialization
- However agr neglected in the first 5 yr plan
- Before a new kulak class emerged, Mao appealed to people to collectivize – hundreds of thousands of villages complied
- Industry
- Cadres sent to cities which were in chaos- get business working again – first priority was to get factories back into prodn, not to nationalize them
- Cadres later began public confessions and self-criticism of capitalist leanings
- 5 year plans were made – first to produce energy and hydroelectric power
- industrial growth for interior – built 427 new factories
- by 57 output in farm machinery, trucks, tractors and jet planes doubled
- a state planning commission modelled on the Soviet Gosplan was est to provide central control over all prodn processes
- more and more industries and businesses were nationalized
- urban population exploded
- social
- public confessions and struggle sessions – confession of capitalist leanings
- old social patterns came under attack include. Patriarchy, female subjugation, and infant marriages
- Marriage laws
- Created sexual equality
- No more marriage contracts, polygamy, child marriage
- Women could now get divorced
- However trad attitudes and practices survived
- Gradually new marriages and egal values became the norm, especially in the cities
- Thought reform
- Control over arts and media
-
A person was either progressive or reactionary – there is no 3rd way
- Film and media must champion proletariat thinking
- Mao disliked w scholars who had studied abroad and brought back w ideas
- He also detested intellectuals
- Thought control programs emerged for all educators
Role of education:
- educational system reorganized and expanded
Role of the Media/ propaganda:
- CCP tried to build a base for mass urban support by means of prop conveyed through newspapers, the theatre, cinema, radio, and group meetings
- intensive campaigns were launched against financial speculators
- webs of committess were est in large towns to deal with pol, il problems, arts, and education
- municipal govt agencies with party rep were extended down to the ward level
- citizens were bunched into small study groups in which they labored to learn the new pol vocab of comm.
- as the party est control over cities and down CCP leadership moved to set up a network of street-committee branches
- rural guerrilla fighters taking control of the cities were repelled by the corruption and softness
Treatment of women, minorities, and religious groups:
Impact on world affairs:
- China as unified nation became world power
- As communist nation would seem to have natural alliance with Russia, but this was not the case – bad history between them – would formally break in 1960
- Soviets and China signed a mutual defence treaty in 1950
- Soviets gave up claims to Lushun and their interests in Manchurian industry and railways
- Approved a $300 million loan to China and to erect and operate a number of model factories
- Supplied technical info and scientists and technicians
- Nevertheless, Am had intervened vs Mao and they became enemies in the cold war
- In Korean war, Chinese forces helped the North Koreans when Ams threatened border of North Korea
Special programs
- Great Leap Forward 1957
- Was an industrial and agrarian growth plan
- Hoped to reduce gap b/w city and country
- Labour intensive projects
- Urban unemployment was to be solved by sending millions in the cities back to the countryside
- Peasants could participate in industrial growth by est backyard businesses in the off-seasons
- They could mfg fertilizers, tools, and other equip needed for farming
- Shift of investment to light industry
- Would provide consumer goods and motivate higher productivity
- This would allow for greater prod of heavy industry
- One of most publicized programs was making of backyard iron and steel
- Large amts of metal and metal products resulted but it was shoddy
- Mao also hastened the merging of village collectives into regional communes – economies of scale were always the aim
- Agr bureaucrats were sent down to the communes to gain first hand experience
- By end of 60, 750 000 collectives had merged into 24 000 communes
- Mao hoped communization would be the first steip in the withering away of the state, for self-sufficient communes would have little need for party apparatus
Assessment of GLF
- Ended in failure
- Shortfalls in food prodn evident in 58
- Food shortages exacerbated by natural disasters 59-60
- Drought affected large areas of N.China
- 15-30 million people died
- Pol chaos due to forced reorganization
- Mao was pushed out of pol control – retained influence with People’s Army
- By 1960 most of communes had been abandoned
Cultural revolution – 1966-1976
- Mao’s last act
- Masses were to experience permanent revolution through youth
- Led to a decade of internal chaos and tragedy that at times resembled civil war
- Movement was anti-intellectual and aimed at the educated
- Mao’s strategy was to use the youth to raise dangers of privilege and modified capitalism
- Began in universities
- Activists donned red arm band and mounted campaigns vs corrruption
- Millions left studies and rooted out revisionists
- Called RED GUARDS
- PEOPLE’S army ordered to assist them
- Students became uncontrollable in their quest to destroy all symbols of the past
- Brought anarchy to the land
- Est local councils that refused to recognize any auth but their own
- Ind prodn was crippled
- Workers in Shanghai carried out own rev in 1967
- Eventually Zhou Enlai ordered army to restore order with force